a of
"until it become plain to them that (this Book) is the truth."(23) And if
he meeteth with injustice he shall have patience, and if he cometh upon
wrath he shall manifest love.

There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from
his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love,
his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he
reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How
many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain
of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart's wound
had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one
taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew
no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have
no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one
deliver him.

At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the
fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and
he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a
watchman followed after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman
following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to
the weary one. And the wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and
there, and moaned to himself: "Surely this watchman is Izra'il, my angel
of death, following so fast upon me; or he is a tyrant of men, seeking to
harm me." His feet carried him on, the one bleeding with the arrow of
love, and his heart lamented. Then he came to a garden wall, and with
untold pain he scaled it, for it proved very high; and forgetting his
life, he threw himself down to the garden.

And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a
ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked on his
ravishing love, he drew a great breath and raised up his hands in prayer,
crying: "O God! Give Thou glory to the watchman, and riches and long life.
For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Israfil,
bringing life to this wretched one!"

Indeed, his words were true, for he had found many a secret justice in
this seeming tyranny of the watchman, and seen how many a mercy lay hid
behind the veil. Out of wrath, the guard had led him who was athirst in
love's desert to the sea of his loved one, and lit up the dark night of
absence with the